Brown breaks with Senate norm to blast Portman

Thursday

Jul 29, 2010 at 12:01 AMJul 29, 2010 at 3:33 PM

WASHINGTON - In an unusual attack by a U.S. senator, Sherrod Brown yesterday assailed Republican Senate nominee Rob Portman, saying there is "no candidate running anywhere in the country'' more responsible than Portman for the sluggish economy.

WASHINGTON - In an unusual attack by a U.S. senator, Sherrod Brown yesterday assailed Republican Senate nominee Rob Portman, saying there is "no candidate running anywhere in the country'' more responsible than Portman for the sluggish economy.

In a conference call with Ohio reporters, Brown, D-Ohio, complained that Portman was an ardent supporter of President George W. Bush's economic policies throughout the decade, first as a Republican congressman from Cincinnati, then as U.S. trade representative and later as the White House budget director.

Brown expressed surprise that Portman, "of all people," would "blame anybody else" for the steep job loss in Ohio since 2007 "when he was the architect of Bush's economic policies. He had the car keys when he was driving the car into the ditch. Now he wants the voters of Ohio to give him the keys back. I don't get it."

Brown is a major backer of Portman's Democratic opponent, Lee Fisher, the state's lieutenant governor. Last night, Portman unveiled a TV commercial against Fisher, charging that Ohio lost nearly 400,000 jobs since Fisher and Gov. Ted Strickland took office in 2007.

Although it is true that non-farm payrolls in Ohio have fallen by 379,900 since December 2006, the state has lost 568,300 jobs since January 2000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bush was president from 2001 through early 2009.

U.S. senators not up for re-election tend to avoid attacking other Senate candidates. The most striking exception was in 2004 when then-Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., campaigned against Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

Asked about the Portman commercial during a conference call on clean energy, Brown said he had not seen it. But he asserted "there is no candidate running anywhere in the country more aligned and more responsible for the Bush economic policy that got us here. It was bad trade policy ... they gave companies incentives to go overseas, and tax cuts for the richest Americans that blew a hole in the government.''

Brown was referring to Portman's votes for tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, which included reductions in income-tax rates for everyone, cuts in taxes on dividends and capital gains, which are profits on the sale of real estate and stock, and a reduction in taxes owed by married couples.

In a response to Brown's attack, Jessica R. Towhey, a Portman spokeswoman, said in a statement that "Lt. Gov. Fisher asked to be held accountable for his record, but since he refuses to talk about it, we wanted to make sure Ohioans know the facts: Under Lt. Gov. Fisher's watch, Ohio lost nearly 400,000 jobs, and nearly nine out of every 10 jobs that left Ohio left for another state.

"Ohio is falling behind the rest of the country, and the last thing we need is Lt. Gov. Fisher in Washington rubber-stamping the agenda" of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.